Taiwan’s Insularity
In 1968, an electronics industry leader and his U.S. corporate
president visited Taipei to see whether this was the right
location for their company’s first Asian factory. In the end,
however, they opted for Singapore. Why not Taipei? The entrepreneur
explained to me that Taipei seemed somehow closed off,
that people just did not know what was happening around the
world, and that the general level of English proficiency was
quite low. In other words, Taipei was not international enough.
In 2002, Lonely Planet brought out an updated edition of its Taiwan guidebook. The author had clearly put little effort into
the revision, as there was almost nothing about new developments
in Taipei in it. But the author did provide an overall
impression of Taiwan’s capital, which he described as one of the
most unapproachable cities in Asia. In other words, Taipei
seems isolated, barely connected with the outside world, and
with a lower than average English fluency: not the kind of city
where international travelers are going to feel at ease, let alone
at home.
Can it be? Thirty-five years have passed since 1968 and
Taiwan is still closed off, still out of touch with the rest of the
world?
Yes, it’s true. Anyone who has traveled much can see
immediately that Taiwan is comparatively insular. There are
few foreign travelers at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport.
The English on the street signs in the capital is an utter mess.
Pick up a newspaper and you are finished with the international
section in five minutes flat. The content of cable television
news is a collective indictment of our self-centeredness: ten
times as much coverage for a child who swallowed nails while
playing than for Ethiopia’s starving millions; footage of a dog
chewing betel nuts in Nantou dwarfs the Argentinean presidential
election in importance; nude demonstrators at a G-8 summit
fill up the television screen, without as much as a single commentary
on their cause. 24 hours a day, the people of Taiwan are
force-fed detailed images of loud-mouthed politicians, whose
antics often escalate into scuffles and even brawls. Issues of
international concern----war, the environment, poverty, famine,
intellectual advances, sudden changes in the old order, latent
crises----seem not to exist in Taiwan.
“That’s absurd,” you may argue, “Taiwan is international:just look at the concentration of Starbucks in Taipei, the highest
in the world. And what about the all-night convenience stores,
on almost every street corner.” There are indeed ways in which
our capital city seems cosmopolitan. Want to hear the hippest
hip hop music and see the latest fashions? Taipei’s the place to
be. Release dates for Hollywood movies are among the earliest
in the world. Moreover, the yearly rhythm we beat out is international:
we celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 14, hold a
costume parade for Halloween in late October, and cook
Thanksgiving turkey dinner in November. Come Christmas in
December and the whole town turns out to sing and dance in
City Hall Square. Even the Presidential Office gets in on the act
on New Year’s Eve, setting off fireworks, popping champagne
corks, and counting down the seconds to midnight, when you
grab the nearest person for a celebratory kiss.
Finally, the newly elected national government is now asking
for English versions of all official documents. Civil servants
must now undergo English testing. The entire population is
studying the language! The final goal of all these efforts is to
make English an official language. So who says Taiwan is
closed off?
Who to Emulate?
But what on earth is “internationalization”?
If “modernization” means the introduction of new farming
techniques used on the existing soil of traditional culture — such
as democratic institutions, the scientific spirit, and industrial
technology — for the benefit of a new philosophy of accommodation
and a new lifestyle, and if “globalization” signals an
unprecedented perforation of traditional ethnic and national borders
as deep-rooted cultural institutions are now self-adjusting to the rhythm of modern technology and economy, then a nation’s
cultural and social heritages—its laws, beliefs, morals, values—
will all have to be redefined.
Modernization is the holy grail of a great many developing
nations, and globalization is rapidly becoming a reality. In the
new order, developed nations are trying to capitalize on established
advantages, while developing countries are faced with the
danger of “becoming invisible” even as they ride the tide of
opportunity.
Where does the concept of “internationalization” fit in? It
would seem to indicate becoming international, but what does
that mean? Who is international and what are they like? In
making English one of our official languages, are we trying to
emulate England and the United States? Or India and the
Philippines? Or Hong Kong and Singapore? When the government
announces the adoption of a foreign language as a lingua
franca, ...
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